Fantom X8 As MIDI Controller?

[FunkDaddy]

Sooo...I've got a Fantom X8 (I'm sure you guessed that already) and an M-Audio Firewire 1814. Currently running Reaper.

I've got the MIDI cables hooked up (Fantom's Out to 1814's In and vice-versa)

But I can't for the life of me figure out how to sync them or anything. I've googled until I can't google anymore and all the problem solving seems to be done after the initial sync up and MIDI data has been transmitted. I know as usual I'm probably just missing something glaringly obvious. It just doesn't seem like the Fantom is sending anything through the MIDI channels.

I checked the MIDI send channels on the Fantom, checked the MIDI input channels in Reaper, made sure my Firewire was selected as the MIDI input device, etc.

I'm not looking to do anything fancy, just want to experiment with some soft synths and hopefully figure out someway to sync up the tempo of what I'm playing in the Fantom to the BPM in Reaper (am I crazy to think that MIDI is the answer for the latter?)

 

[gecko zzed]

I see you've done a fair bit of checking already, but just to make sure all bases are covered.

In Reaper:

1 Go to Options/Preferences/Audio/midi devices
Make sure the Firewire 1814 is there and enabled, both as input and output devices. I

2 Insert a new track
Arm it for recording. Select "midi input", then the 1814 as the recording input.
If you play the Fantom, you should be able to see some activity where you've selected midi (even though you may not hear anything at this stage).

3 Go to the "Sends and Receives" button on this track, go to "Midi Hardware Output", and select the device that you want to send the midi to. You should see the firewire midi there, and maybe MS Wavetable.

4 Just under the Recording Arm button is a monitoring button. Set this to "On" or Auto". If you play your Fantom, you should now be able to hear something.

If you have a soft synth of some sort, here are some things to try.

Go through steps 1, 2 and 4 above.

Then

3 Click on the track FX button. This brings up a list of the various things you can add in. Click on VSTi and select an instrument. If yo play the Fantom, you should now hear this instrument.

The first step is to make sure you can get the system to make noise when you want it to.

The next step is to then manipulate the noise in the way that you want. Midi is the answer to this . . . but I can't help here just yet because I'm not entirely sure what you have in mind, nor am I clear on the capabilities of the Fantom. However, my approach would be to build up a midi arrnagement in Reaper, then use Reaper to drive the Fantom.

 

[FunkDaddy]

Oh sweet jesus, I had the In's going to the In's I can hear my gear laughing at me right now. I must have lost track somewhere behind the keyboard when I was double-checking that earlier.

But thanks gecko, Step 3 was actually going to be my next question once I got something happening with the MIDI setup, as in, how I would go about using the MIDI data in Reaper to drive my Fantom.

Thanks again! I appreciate the time you took